Much thanks to Cybernetika and Xenofish's music to set the tone of the level perfectly!

After years of changes and re-edits this is the definitive version of the map. If there was one thing I wasn't able to add in for the final version is a Tonatiuh's shrine having a temple inside the mountain that would lead to the exit area but the terrain (especially the Cryox itself) proved to be massively unstable. Plus it would have been a complete waste of time gameplay-wise, just a temple with nobody inside and that's not how EXU2 truly works, especially in a map that plays quite differently to begin with.

I don't think I ever stated it (maybe that commentary fire in the v6 thread) but I thought of Tonatiuh after having played Serious Sam TSE and defeated the last boss who all he did was spam-spawning other enemies in the game. I wanted to make the boss fly instead of walk but 1. whatever I did the Krall would bug out and never attack, 2. I'm afraid he would have left the arena and 3. the Krall looks more badass while running. I love when all the lights and glyphs shut down after he's dead.

Also another thing is that the waves of enemies before the boss are different per difficulty:Easy = Skaarj -> Krall -> BrutesMedium = Skaarj -> Gasbags -> KrallHard = Skaarj -> Gasbags -> MercenariesUnreal = Skaarj -> Gasbags -> WarlordsEach race spawner has its own quantity of enemies and whenever a race type spawns is defined per difficulty through time limit. In Coop all the spawners have 2x more the quantity of enemies. The boss only spawn when all the spawners are out of enemies, which can only happen if you kill monsters because only a limited quantity of them can stay in the battlefield. In previous versions it was all time based, meaning if you'd waste a lot of time killing the spawned enemies the boss would eventually appear and it was trouble. EXU actors are a fucking godsend and should be a default thing in Unreal levels, they are too good.

I don't think I ever stated it (maybe that commentary fire in the v6 thread) but I thought of Tonatiuh after having played Serious Sam TSE and defeated the last boss who all he did was spam-spawning other enemies in the game. I wanted to make the boss fly instead of walk but 1. whatever I did the Krall would bug out and never attack, 2. I'm afraid he would have left the arena and 3. the Krall looks more badass while running. I love when all the lights and glyphs shut down after he's dead.

Also another thing is that the waves of enemies before the boss are different per difficulty:Easy = Skaarj -> Krall -> BrutesMedium = Skaarj -> Gasbags -> KrallHard = Skaarj -> Gasbags -> MercenariesUnreal = Skaarj -> Gasbags -> WarlordsEach race spawner has its own quantity of enemies and whenever a race type spawns is defined per difficulty through time limit. In Coop all the spawners have 2x more the quantity of enemies. The boss only spawn when all the spawners are out of enemies, which can only happen if you kill monsters because only a limited quantity of them can stay in the battlefield. In previous versions it was all time based, meaning if you'd waste a lot of time killing the spawned enemies the boss would eventually appear and it was trouble. EXU actors are a fucking godsend and should be a default thing in Unreal levels, they are too good.

Video has a cut near the start because I had to redo the first minute or so.

The amount of stuff in the main arena impressed me on a technical level; I'm almost surprised the engine manages to handle so many enemies and effects at once. The clusterfucker's range and homing+the backpack does kind of promote camping in a safe area, but the equipment dispensers and need to stock up help with making you move. The boss also has cool effects and sequences associated with it, and the spawns seem to be tougher than the ones from the portals, but there's plenty of tools to minimise the risk of being overwhelmed at least. It feels like the visit to the shrine after the boss could have something more to it because it feels slightly disconnected as it is. The "treasure hunt" in the aftermath is a nice way to explore the rest of the terrain even if backtracking across it takes a while. I don't know how G59 escalates later but this is a good high-note to end the first episode on.

In Unreal difficulty camping is not exactly a great choice since the Warlords can reach you anywhere and therefore can shoot you from different directions. Few of them use rockets that do plenty of damage and have a big explosion radius. The backpack missile is a necessity there while it's probably overpowered in the lower difficulties; I didn't want to have the item's charge being low, I am pretty sure everyone hate (including me) having to constantly turn on and off the item in order to minimize consumption.

Semfry wrote: It feels like the visit to the shrine after the boss could have something more to it because it feels slightly disconnected as it is.

Yeah, as I said in the first response the shrine was supposed to be a temple that would run through the mountain and lead directly to the ship. It would have been something similar to the 7B's third Vandora level but the level's geometry was collapsing (the Cryox part is a mess even right now, it's not visible to the eye but there's a world leak inside the exit area which is only accessible if you go past the teleport actor), the part was likely going to be devoid of enemies and the map is already quite walk-heavy with no action when you take the treasure hunt into account, plus I couldn't make a decent layout. I'll save those design ideas for a late level.

Story-wise it would have made a bit more clear that the Cryox/Manitou in the open you see in the level is a tiny part of the real thing which hides under the ground for many miles; it also was going to be the real home of that bizarre message found at the entrance of the Manitou valley - which explains its current random placement but I think having a cryptic text out of the blue might not be a bad thing after all.

First week of 2018 won't have a proper MOTW thread, instead there will be a general discussion one where you can talk about any map, just about anything you have in mind regarding Unreal.

For those who are curious about the sun in this map, it's pretty simple: a bunch of panel and flare actors using custom textures and foggy lights. I got inspired by the Marker song and the cover art of the Xenofish album where it came from, while I was editing Neonlights (the map before this one).